TO elaborate, this has been an issue ever since the very first active X control was invented. No default installation of Intercrappy explorer has every allowed unsigned active x controls to auto-install for this very reason. The issue pre-dates IE 4 (3 as well afaik.)
I mean, there's nothing more valuable to a spammer than a list of functional e-mail addresses. How best to trick people into letting a spammer know an e-mail addy is good? The unsubscribe link, LOL.
NEVER use the 'remove me' or 'unsubscribe' link when the spam is from a company you do not trust.
...I went to a small school with a solid CS curriculum (College of Charleston) and I make over 6 figures only 7 years later.
I'm no genius (as many will happily attest) but I've found that hard work, making disciplined engineering choices, and standing up for yourself w/o alienating others are a good way to move forward in your career.
I'm sure others have different recipes for success. My degree has had nothing to do with it. Personally, I've worked with people from CalTech who were, professionally, idiots. Same thing with Berkeley CS grads as well.
I'm sure that for many managers the name means something when you start out, but I've found that after your first couple of jobs, what you've done is much more important than where you graduated.
Definitely. It takes about 1 second to actually make a firewall useless: "A process at xxx:xxx:xxx:xxx has attempted to connect to your machine, do you wish to allow this process access to your machine?" LOL.
I would hazard that the default install of an operating system require a firewall because, today, the default use of a PC is for it to be networked in some fashion.
Please remember, I'm not arguing that Windows ins't an insecure mess of crap, it can be (usually is actually.) I'm just saying that it sounded rather sensationalist (the OP, not the articles themselves.)
Indeed, but a default linux installation is also extremely vulnerable w/o a firewall. Not 4 minutes vulnerable, but who cares who loses first if everybody loses;).
That's funny. You're too stupid to realize that I'm referring to your assertion that either I'm lying or Valve is wrong. Maybe you should let your mom have her computer back now.
Again, in case it wasn't clear the first two times: Your axiom is faulty. Perhaps you'd like to assail this point again using a different tactic. I don't have to be a 'liar' or Valve is 'wrong.'
Are you a loony? LOL. Why on earth would my repeated suggestion that you stop talking about something as if you're an expert w/o even making the effort to obtain a contemporary viewpoint mean that I am saying that I lied?
Man, that's some crazy logic you've got going.
Who cares if you're a valve customer. If you're going to attempt to have an objective viewpoint about a situation, you might (just might) fight it useful to actually visit a forum where you can garner information from both sides rather than armchairing your foot into your mouth.
As for your pedantic assertions that Valve must have lied because what they said is 100% impossible; perhaps (just perhaps) you could get down off of Mount Sinai and join the rest of the world in understanding that Valve's statements are to be read in the context in which they were presented. Not the your puerile of lawyerly literalism.
Get off your high horse, get off your keyboard-ass and visit the forums and read from both sides. Then come back an tell everybody how you know everything. Someone may give your diatribes a shred of credence.
If you're worried about being labeled ignorant or being thought so, answer the following question honestly: Did you visit the valve forums before you wrote your previous post?
I have more faith in Valve's technical ability than in the majority of the game playing public who, in my personal experience, steal whatever they can when they believe no repercussions will ensue.
If you bothered to visit the Valve forums and read about the way they identified the cheaters, you'd realize that you're making the wrong assumption. It is safe to assume that the people with problems are cheaters, it is not safe to assume they are legitimate owners.
One of the reasons for this, again if you'd bothered to check the Valve forums, is that the CD keygen tool generated a keygen that only represented a particular subset of possible working keys. Valve generated keys for production which matched certain patterns (such as geographic location.) The legitimate users who were caught up in the problem were those whose keys 'could' have been legitimate and they had their accounts re-activated. Now that this is public information, Valve says they have other ways to identify cheaters as well.
Actually they aren't. Visit the steam forums and you'll find out that Valve used a series of particular methods for identifying those who stole the game, only one of which was by examine the keygen. I doubt there are very many actual purchasers who (as of now) have problems using their product(s). Most of the affected legitimate users were re-activated earlier today.
I agree with some of what you say in principle; however, we tend to treat software as something immaterial because it isn't quite so physically tangible as other items which, I believe, more clearly divide people over right and wrong. For example, unless you consider software something special, you are suggesting that if I'm too young to have the money to buy my own bike, it is okay for me to go and steal a bike from the bike shop. If I'm not good enough to beat my friends at poker, it is okay to cheat until I become good enough. Et cetera. Being young and low on cash is not an excuse to steal. Get a job. Wash some cars. Mow some lawns.;)
LOL, that was on tv just the other night wasn't it?;)
In any case, where was all this outcry about inconvenience when people were generating keys which blocked legitimate owners from playing online with the original HL/CS?
Activation does suck, but activation has been introduced because people ARE STEALING so much software that companies are losing significant revenue (not in all cases, but in games it is significant.)
You don't want activation? Find some other way to deter warez a**holes.
If the tit is serving what I like, I'm not too discriminating. I also wouldn't characterize Valve as the big shadowy corporation when they're just a small company with some very talented people who, God forbid, dislike people stealing from them what they've been killing themselves to produce.
I pretty much agree with everything you said. I would just note that Valve/Steam undertook this decision with their best interests at heart, and currently (as regards gaming), those are my best interests as well.;)
They are doing something valuable in that they are introducing FUD into the warez community and (hopefully) scaring off the less hard core members who just log on to a P2P service/site and steal the game, and install/run it (without realizing they probably just installed a series of trojans from spammers who pull these games off P2P themselves, put in a trojan, and push it back out.)
Basically, most people seem to think that they deserve everything and if they want to simply take something they can and even should. They should be disabused of this notion and I, for one, applaud Valve's stance and their efforts (whether they are merely a token remains to be seen.)
According to the Valve Steam forums, several hundred people who are known to have been accidentally banned have had their accounts re-activated by Valve.
There will probably be a few people who have to go the onerous route of supplying proof of purchase to Valve to re-activate, but considering the costs to software companies from outright thieving, it is imho a tiny price to pay. It took 6 years and 40 million dollars to produce this game, and then some warez s***heads delayed it almost by a year with their breakin. I hope Valve hammers them all so that I can buy HL-3 that much faster.
Hmmm, is English a second language for you? Is the "99.9% of them deserved it" part confusing? I'm sure it is annoying for a valid customer of Valve to have this issue; however, if you'd bothered to visit the Valve Steam forums you'd realize that the several hundred people who are known to have been accidentally banned have had their accounts re-activated by Valve.
I'm sure there may be 100 people who get illegitimately screwed out of this action (probably far fewer and possibly none) but they will be inconvenienced only long enough to provide proof of purchase to Valve.
I certainly think that less than a few hundred people being inconvenienced versus Valve losing their 6 year, 40 million dollar investment, and smacking thieves in the face who rip off countless other software companies as well, is totally acceptable.
Slashdot Mirror
***ever*** (ugh, gud grummar ahnd spalling)
TO elaborate, this has been an issue ever since the very first active X control was invented. No default installation of Intercrappy explorer has every allowed unsigned active x controls to auto-install for this very reason. The issue pre-dates IE 4 (3 as well afaik.)
I wonder if anybody knew that before... LOL.
I mean, there's nothing more valuable to a spammer than a list of functional e-mail addresses. How best to trick people into letting a spammer know an e-mail addy is good? The unsubscribe link, LOL.
NEVER use the 'remove me' or 'unsubscribe' link when the spam is from a company you do not trust.
...I went to a small school with a solid CS curriculum (College of Charleston) and I make over 6 figures only 7 years later.
I'm no genius (as many will happily attest) but I've found that hard work, making disciplined engineering choices, and standing up for yourself w/o alienating others are a good way to move forward in your career.
I'm sure others have different recipes for success. My degree has had nothing to do with it. Personally, I've worked with people from CalTech who were, professionally, idiots. Same thing with Berkeley CS grads as well.
I'm sure that for many managers the name means something when you start out, but I've found that after your first couple of jobs, what you've done is much more important than where you graduated.
Definitely. It takes about 1 second to actually make a firewall useless: "A process at xxx:xxx:xxx:xxx has attempted to connect to your machine, do you wish to allow this process access to your machine?" LOL.
I would hazard that the default install of an operating system require a firewall because, today, the default use of a PC is for it to be networked in some fashion.
Please remember, I'm not arguing that Windows ins't an insecure mess of crap, it can be (usually is actually.) I'm just saying that it sounded rather sensationalist (the OP, not the articles themselves.)
It was a 'baby seal' scenario, LOL.
Dood, too easy. Google "default redhat vulnerable" and away you go.
Indeed, but a default linux installation is also extremely vulnerable w/o a firewall. Not 4 minutes vulnerable, but who cares who loses first if everybody loses ;).
Yes, but it is worded to sound more sensationalist by not specifying that it's baby seal crawling through a sea of baseball bats...
...as well. Without a firewall, no computer is safe and with one, no computer is safe (just slightly safer...)
Hilarious you are mate.
"The only way it would make sense for me to bother reading the forums would be if I had a reason to doubt your claims about what was said there."
Great, so we both agree that according to the forums there are virtually no actual HL2 customers having problems with authentication at this time.
Thanks.
That's funny. You're too stupid to realize that I'm referring to your assertion that either I'm lying or Valve is wrong. Maybe you should let your mom have her computer back now.
Again, in case it wasn't clear the first two times: Your axiom is faulty. Perhaps you'd like to assail this point again using a different tactic. I don't have to be a 'liar' or Valve is 'wrong.'
oops, please insert *** in the domain of your puerile and lawyerly literalism ***, you know where.
Are you a loony? LOL. Why on earth would my repeated suggestion that you stop talking about something as if you're an expert w/o even making the effort to obtain a contemporary viewpoint mean that I am saying that I lied?
Man, that's some crazy logic you've got going.
Who cares if you're a valve customer. If you're going to attempt to have an objective viewpoint about a situation, you might (just might) fight it useful to actually visit a forum where you can garner information from both sides rather than armchairing your foot into your mouth.
As for your pedantic assertions that Valve must have lied because what they said is 100% impossible; perhaps (just perhaps) you could get down off of Mount Sinai and join the rest of the world in understanding that Valve's statements are to be read in the context in which they were presented. Not the your puerile of lawyerly literalism.
Get off your high horse, get off your keyboard-ass and visit the forums and read from both sides. Then come back an tell everybody how you know everything. Someone may give your diatribes a shred of credence.
If you're worried about being labeled ignorant or being thought so, answer the following question honestly: Did you visit the valve forums before you wrote your previous post?
I have more faith in Valve's technical ability than in the majority of the game playing public who, in my personal experience, steal whatever they can when they believe no repercussions will ensue.
If you bothered to visit the Valve forums and read about the way they identified the cheaters, you'd realize that you're making the wrong assumption. It is safe to assume that the people with problems are cheaters, it is not safe to assume they are legitimate owners.
One of the reasons for this, again if you'd bothered to check the Valve forums, is that the CD keygen tool generated a keygen that only represented a particular subset of possible working keys. Valve generated keys for production which matched certain patterns (such as geographic location.) The legitimate users who were caught up in the problem were those whose keys 'could' have been legitimate and they had their accounts re-activated. Now that this is public information, Valve says they have other ways to identify cheaters as well.
Actually they aren't. Visit the steam forums and you'll find out that Valve used a series of particular methods for identifying those who stole the game, only one of which was by examine the keygen. I doubt there are very many actual purchasers who (as of now) have problems using their product(s). Most of the affected legitimate users were re-activated earlier today.
It is because some of them are 'some of us.'
I agree with some of what you say in principle; however, we tend to treat software as something immaterial because it isn't quite so physically tangible as other items which, I believe, more clearly divide people over right and wrong. For example, unless you consider software something special, you are suggesting that if I'm too young to have the money to buy my own bike, it is okay for me to go and steal a bike from the bike shop. If I'm not good enough to beat my friends at poker, it is okay to cheat until I become good enough. Et cetera. Being young and low on cash is not an excuse to steal. Get a job. Wash some cars. Mow some lawns. ;)
LOL, that was on tv just the other night wasn't it? ;)
In any case, where was all this outcry about inconvenience when people were generating keys which blocked legitimate owners from playing online with the original HL/CS?
Activation does suck, but activation has been introduced because people ARE STEALING so much software that companies are losing significant revenue (not in all cases, but in games it is significant.)
You don't want activation? Find some other way to deter warez a**holes.
If the tit is serving what I like, I'm not too discriminating. I also wouldn't characterize Valve as the big shadowy corporation when they're just a small company with some very talented people who, God forbid, dislike people stealing from them what they've been killing themselves to produce.
I pretty much agree with everything you said. I would just note that Valve/Steam undertook this decision with their best interests at heart, and currently (as regards gaming), those are my best interests as well. ;)
They are doing something valuable in that they are introducing FUD into the warez community and (hopefully) scaring off the less hard core members who just log on to a P2P service/site and steal the game, and install/run it (without realizing they probably just installed a series of trojans from spammers who pull these games off P2P themselves, put in a trojan, and push it back out.)
Basically, most people seem to think that they deserve everything and if they want to simply take something they can and even should. They should be disabused of this notion and I, for one, applaud Valve's stance and their efforts (whether they are merely a token remains to be seen.)
According to the Valve Steam forums, several hundred people who are known to have been accidentally banned have had their accounts re-activated by Valve.
There will probably be a few people who have to go the onerous route of supplying proof of purchase to Valve to re-activate, but considering the costs to software companies from outright thieving, it is imho a tiny price to pay. It took 6 years and 40 million dollars to produce this game, and then some warez s***heads delayed it almost by a year with their breakin. I hope Valve hammers them all so that I can buy HL-3 that much faster.
Hmmm, is English a second language for you? Is the "99.9% of them deserved it" part confusing? I'm sure it is annoying for a valid customer of Valve to have this issue; however, if you'd bothered to visit the Valve Steam forums you'd realize that the several hundred people who are known to have been accidentally banned have had their accounts re-activated by Valve.
I'm sure there may be 100 people who get illegitimately screwed out of this action (probably far fewer and possibly none) but they will be inconvenienced only long enough to provide proof of purchase to Valve.
I certainly think that less than a few hundred people being inconvenienced versus Valve losing their 6 year, 40 million dollar investment, and smacking thieves in the face who rip off countless other software companies as well, is totally acceptable.